Is bossy a bad word?

Is bossy a word you use often? I did not before the past few months. In fact you may have seen a lot of talk about being called ‘bossy‘.

Here is what I think:

I never thought was bad word. To me it implied someone who takes charge when others are milling around being indecisive. And yes many times I was that person. However now I would take offense if one of my peers called me bossy. I now prefer the term leading. What changed?

I believe that bossy implies that you tell people what to do without actually doing it. It is the opposite of leading by example and that is irritating. When I was a child I did not know how to lead by example and telling people what to do was fun. Plus I was not getting paid to lead them and I really did not care whether or not their feeling were hurt .